Articulating the past : an osteosocial analysis

Abstract

This thesis proposed a model of skeletal analysis aimed at the reconstruction of past social composition. The model comprises five basic steps: recording of age, sex and pathology; analysis of demographic structure using life tables; identification of pathological conditions through differential diagnosis; analysis of the causes of death; and finally, interpretation of these results in terms of the experience of each age class. The end result is an analysis aimed beyond the comparison of percentages between skeletal samples to a reconstruction of the living society. This picture is then open to comparison with ethnographic as well as archaeological sources of evidence. In order to test this analytical model and its ability to address questions of biocultural adaptation, two groups of skeletons from Bahrain, the Arabian Gulf, were examined. These date from c 300 BC to AD 200 and come from two cemeteries: DS3 and Saar. Analysis of burial practices indicates that the Saar sample could be biased towards older ages but that the DS3 sample is representative of the past population. Analysis of palaeodemography and palaeopathology indicates that these two populations faced difficulties due to the agricultural environment in which they lived. Levels of morbidity and mortality were high during early childhood and later again in the young adult ages. The older age groups were affected by skeletal fluorosis. This particular combination of disease and causes of death determines a population structure which, despite higher mortality levels (particularly amongst adults) does not vary greatly from small agricultural populations today. Such a population, however, is extremely vulnerable to economic and environmental crises suggesting that the evident regional continuity is based upon discontinuous local histories. The application of the model demonstrates that an osteosocial analysis upon a single skeletal population can result in a reconstruction of the past living society; that skeletal analysis can present a dynamic model of past social and environmental networks.